Formatting Chapter Breaks

Linds

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I'm going over formatting for my manuscript, and I am curious what is the best way to format chapter breaks when you submit an excerpt/manuscript? I've been looking over websites and haven't found anything particularly useful beyond basic formatting--most examples swing towards short stories.

And a second question for kicks. Are chapters necessary? Will agents be more likely to ax it if there are only scene breaks a la Pratchett's The Color Of Magic? I didn't write the manuscript by chapter (maybe not the smartest move I grant you). Though, some writers I find tend to use chapters like scene breaks anyways.

Thank you for your thoughts!
 

Old Hack

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If you use chapters, start each new chapter on a new page, and move it down the page a few extra lines. It looks more balanced that way.

Not having chapters won't hurt your chances of getting published so long as your book works well without chapters.
 

Vemy Paw

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This maybe a little off-topic from your questions, but you might want to think again about not having chapters if you're a new YA author. Even Pratchett says his editor kept telling him to break his books into chapters.

"DW books don't have chapters because, well, I just never got into the habit of chapters. I'm not sure why they should exist (except maybe in children's books, to allow the parent to say "I'll read to the end of the chapter and then you must go to sleep."). Films don't have chapters. Besides, I think they interfere with the shape of the story. Use a bookmark is my advice."

"I have to shove them in the putative YA books because my editor screams until I do."
From http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/words-from-the-master.html
 

Terie

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If you're using Microsoft Word, I would suggest that you format your chapter breaks by inserting a section break (not a page break) of the 'next page' type. This allows you to have different headers for each chapter. That is, you can include the chapter number in the header for each chapter.

Here's how to do this in Word pre-2007.

Here's how to do this in Word 2007+.
 

eggs

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I don't use chapters when I write, just scene breaks. I estimate it would take me somewhere between 15-20 minutes to convert an 80K chapter-free document into one with neatly headed chapters. I don't think it's really an issue.
 

Linds

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Old Hack-your icon is awesome.

VemyPaw-Ha, I didn't know that about Pratchett.

Terie- thank you for the links.

eggs- yeah, converting it wasn't really a problem

Thank you for your thoughts. I just want it to look right on the page, right now I have a page break and then start about 1/3 down the page. I'm just being ridiculously anal due to nervousness.